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Defence of Prothera
The Defence of Prothera was a major battle in 326.M41 between the Imperium and Chaos forces from The Grave. It took place on the Agri World of Prothera in the Core Worlds of Sector Deus and ended in a shameful failure for the Ghosts of Retribution. 'Description' The Chapter responded to a call for aid from the world of Prothera when it was attacked by traitor foces, Chaos Space Marines and their cultists. During the 10 days between the beginning of the assault and the Ghosts' arrival in-system the heretics had plunged Prothera in disarray by destroying the planetary HQ and communication relays in the capital of Auctumnus, removing any ability for the PDF to coordinate their full strength against the enemy forces. The defenders of Auctumnus - the 1st Protheran Infantry Regiment - was decimated by the chaos astartes while two orbital defence air wings (ODWs) were similarly attacked by the Red Giants swarm of aggressive, near-suicidal fighter craft. While the defence wings inflicted considerable losses on the attacking craft they were awfully outnumbered, and destroyed almost entirely. Meanwhile a smaller force of traitor marines had attacked the planet's archaic weather cathedral, and had (unbeknowst to the Ghosts) began the process of plunging Prothera into an ice age. The Chapter made planetfall with over 4 companies of Space Marines. Most landed in the centre of the planetary capital Auctumnus, making their way to an Arbites fortress that was repelling a Red Giants siege. Chapter Master meanwhile accompanied a few squads of Veterans in drop pods to attack a stadium where the Red Giants had been rounding up civilian prisoners. Unfortunately a coordinate error resulted in the drop pods landing directly inside the stadium, crushing some civilians under collapsed masonry. Nevertheless the Ghosts slaughtered enemy forces present allowing most of the prisoners to escape. Chapter Master quickly rejoined the rest of his Chapter on their way to the beleaguered Arbites fortress, but along the way they were accosted by Ashkenor himself and some of his chaos marines who had taken up defensive positions in an abandoned Schola. The Fortress of Vengeance rumbled forwards and unleashed heavy fire at the rockcrete building, but an almighty doombolt from the Sorcerer (that would have reduced a lesser tank to slag immediately) broke one of the super-heavy tank's tracks. Undeterred the Ghosts kept pushing forwards, eager to kill Ashkenor. But the wily Sorcerer was only interested in stalling the loyalists, and quickly abandoned his position by retreating through the sewers. By now the weather had taken a terrible turn after the heretic's meddling with the weather cathedral controls, and as the loyalist advance was stymied by setbacks and the inclement weather the Red Giants fled Auctumnus into the countryside. After heading to the weather cathedral, the Chapter discovered that all the control mechanisms had been destoryed, with the aparatus itself set to the worst weather patterns imaginable. A quake bomb repurposed by Seran into an airburst charge managed to equalise weather on the planet long enough for an evacuation effort to be launched, but without fixing the weather cathedral an impending ice age was inevitable. Despite low losses, this iwas crushing defeat as Chapter failed to stop an inferior enemy force from laying waste to one of the most important worlds in the Sector. As a result of this loss, around two dozen worlds came to a brink of revolution because of food riots. Category:Chapter Operations